'Forget aging. We're all for active living!' Hingham seniors to celebrate new name April 3

HINGHAM – What's in a name? A lot if you live in Hingham.

The lively, dedicated group of residents who use what once was called the senior center now show up at the Center for Active Living.

That is the new name for the same building at 224 Central St., connecting to town hall and the police department.

"I think it's a perfect update," Joyce Bethoney, who teaches a monthly cooking class at the center, said of the name change.

"When you say 'senior center,' it connotes old age, at least in this country. 'Center for active living' makes you feel like you are part of this activity. It connotes fun and a whole different idea to being a senior."

Bethoney has enjoyed hearing younger women say, "I can't wait to be a senior!" when they hear about recipes made in her class at the center, The Joyful Kitchen.

Hingham's name change, first proposed a year ago, became official in November. The center is holding a celebration open to all on April 3. Jennifer Young, director of the center, said the party at 224 Central St. will be from noon to 2 p.m.

Celebrate with food truck, face painting, photo booth

The celebration will feature a BBQ food truck, face painting, photo booth, Hingham singers, giveaways and a ribbon-cutting. State Rep. Joan Meschino and state Sen. Patrick O'Connor will speak. Hingham schools have an early release that day and parents are invited to stop by with children.

The Center for Active Living also has a new slogan: “Connect. Discover. Grow.” This describes three of the top reasons members gave for attending programs there.

Picking a new name for the same center is a symbolic change that also reflects a broader conversation both nationally and locally. Senior centers are one of the most widely used services by older adults; there are more than 11,000 in this country.

"The new name displays that we are about active living and learning; we are not just seniors," Jean Silverio, 77, a member of both the center's rebranding and marketing committees, said.

"Most don't want to be called just seniors. We have a new logo to inspire people to drop by and become members." The logo shows a rising sun, with blue wavy line for the ocean, and the new slogan.

People don't want to come to a place with 'that name'

Silverio said that in speaking with older adults, "for many, especially young seniors, 'senior center' was a turn-off. Some people don't see themselves that way and don't want to come to a place with that name."

Other local senior centers have discussed how to attract more younger seniors to programs and how to win town support for larger new locations or expanded space in current buildings.

One answer seems to be think inter-generational, appealing to younger residents as well.

Best way to end the day: The beach is the place to be for Nordic walkers as they watch the sun set & full moon rise

What you call yourself, and what your community calls the place where you and your peers gather, influences how you think of yourself. And how others regard you.

Silverio said the committee members toured other senior centers. The town continues working on plans to either build a new center on Bare Cove Park Road or expand the current 5,000-square-foot center, after the police department's planned move out of the building.

Scituate seniors had a different take on it all

In Scituate, a beautiful new 15,000-square-foot senior center opened three years ago. Linda Hayes Kelley, the director, said when the new building was being planned, the question of what to call it did come up.

"It had to, because it was already appearing as a trend, but the general consensus at that time was that it was unnecessary," Kelley said.

"Most of our present supporters/patrons were happy that it was going to be a senior center, since they had waited/advocated for so long. And many also thought that it was just a name and it would end up being the 'senior' center anyway."

"Getting the building was more important than any trending idea of what it should be called and it has really never come up in any serious way since we have opened."

Marshfield opened its expanded senior center in June, 2022, nearly doubling the space but keeping the same name as before. "It was never even discussed," Sheila Gagnon, board chairman of the council on aging, said.

A cafeteria, day trips, a younger crowd are all draws

The new thinking about what to call community centers that serve older residents began some 15 years ago.

Sharon was one of the first communities to make the switch in 2008, with a new Sharon Adult Center designed to appeal to baby boomers and younger adults in the town recreation building.

Today, the town of Plymouth also has an enviable, spacious Center for Active Living under the town's commissioner of health and human services. The newsletter logo lists "community, creativity, volunteering, unity, togetherness, friendship, learn."

The city of Newton will hold ground-breaking for its new Cooper Center for Active Living on Thursday, March 7. It will open in 2025.

A year ago, the town of Sandwich opened its first new public building in 40 years, the Center for Active Living, designed to serve both older adults and youth. And the town of Oxford, near Worcester, combines youth, adult and senior programs in the Community Center.

Changes will continue to be debated. In Weymouth, there is a story behind the slogan for Whipple Senior Center. "Friends, Health and Cheer – It All Starts Here" was chosen the winner in a contest in 2015. It was coined by the late Ed Whittaker.

Whittaker, who lived to 101, once believed that "senior centers are only for old people" and only began going to the Weymouth senior center after his wife died because his daughters insisted. He was sitting around his house. One morning they took him out for coffee and then simply drove him there and took him inside. Soon he was coming to Muscles in Motion and all the dances.

Would he have come by sooner if the name had been 'Center for Active Living?'

It's hard to say, but I hope that by the next generation, "senior" will have more positive associations, thanks to all the hard work, positive emphasis and changing lifestyles of men and women rising up out of middle-age and hopefully accepting their new status.

"The phone number looks like it comes from the police station ... but it doesn't. Scam alert"

Last week just a few days after writing a column about scams that target seniors, I received an email from the property manager of the condominium building where I live in Watertown.

It was alerting residents, many older adults, about a scam phone call that pretended to be coming from the chief of police. The police warning:

"We gave had several reports of people calling the elderly and stating they are Chief Hanrahan and requesting personal information from them. THIS IS NOT TRUE. The phone number looks like it comes from the police station, but it is not from us!

"Chief (Justin) Hanrahan will never call you looking for your personal information, banking information or else he will come to your house to have you arrested. Do not entertain these types of calls. Please just hang up. IT IS A SCAM."

SCAM ALERT: If you hear a voice shouting at you from your computer, turn it off. It's a scam

Grace Buscher, owner of GMBSecurity in Quincy, said she has gotten spam calls from people pretending to be the Mayor of Quincy as well as the Superintendent of Schools several years ago.

"There are programs out there that scammers can use to make the calling number that shows up on your phone read anything they wan it to say. This is one reason not to trust those calling numbers (that display on your phone when the phone rings.)  I have seen cases where they tell you that calling number is your own number."

If you didn't know about these tricks, you might not believe they were possible. Thank you to the Watertown Police Department. I don't have a landline so I didn't not receive this call, but I have gotten other fake calls on my cellphone.

Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com

"

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Hingham changes name of senior center to Center for Active Living